I don't know if anyone else has noticed but it seems like Caesar's Legion has more in common with the Mongol Empire than the Romans. Genghis Khan forged his empire by uniting all the tribes of the Mongolia. He was extremely ruthless in his conquest. He ordered wholesale slaughter of people who resisted him. He used fear and brutality to intimidate the enemy. Women and children of conquered enemies were taken by their soldiers as slaves.

It probably would've been a bit confusing seeing as there are already people in the game called Great Khans.

The comparison to the mongols is very apt though. The other thing is the drive to keep conquering to keep it all together.

I don't think it would be better for the game just to pick a more 'appropriate' theme though. I like the wild mashup of stuff in a post-apocalyptic world.

I think they went with Caesars Legion just tbecause of the famous Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Though you have a good point. The real legions did plenty of conquering and enslaving to be sure, but they actually held power through road building and commerce. They weren't any more war like than any other people of thier time (or ours) they were just better at it.

PAX ROMANA

True but the Great Khans are a minor faction and they didn't have to be included in the game.

I think going with the roman theme was the good choice. Romans besides just conquering other nations also favored the arts, knowledge, learning, civilization. A faction like that would be grey from an evil/good moral stand point and would fit very well in what Obsidian tried to do with factions in FNV.

The sad thing is that indeed Caesar's Legion turned out more like the Mongol Empire. Savage conquerors.

You also managed to describe how the Roman Empire worked.

I'm a bit disappointed there wasn't a Caesar's Palace in New Vegas. I mean, c'mon!

there is way more lysander in caesar than everything.

One reason he wants to conquer Vegas is to make it his Rome. So the palace comes after the conquest.

The Mongols were mounted troops, cavalry. Where as the Roman Legionnaire was a foot soldier. I have not noticed, need to look, as to whether the legion wear greaves in the game. They should. Caesar is much more widely known than Temüjin is, aka the Great Khan or Genghis Khan.

Not really. The mongols were civilized people, the legion are a bunch of devolved savages. They are like the master's army from fallout.

No way I love the fact that the Legion was modeled after the Romans. The Great Khans are too closely related to the Mongols and the Khans certainly came before the Legion.

Oh yes!... Drive-by horsearchery!

No! The Mongols are nothing like the romans. You forget that the reason Caesar is doing this is to create a better world. His tactics are barbarian due to the fact that the majority of civilization in the fallout universe is barbaric (Look at Caesar & his 13th during the Gaul conquest for an example). But he also has Diplomacy & is Civilized. The Mongols were barbaric and that was it. Any civility & ability to govern stemmed from things they learnt during their conquests. They may have instituted reformations that benefited many cultures, but when all was said & done only 2 cultures were affected. The Russians & the Chinese. Mongol stability crumbled in record time once they were no longer a threat. The Romans on the other hand were a cornerstone of civilization that held captured territories for centuries & helped civilize the barbarians, which was adopted & helped shape the modern day world. Thus Caesar's Legion being modeled after real life Romans makes them more Roman than Mongolian.

The Great Khans already existed before Fallout NV

If they named them after the mongols people would wonder whether they were formed by the Khans from Fallout 1 and 2.

i think the reason they went with caesars legion is because everything about it was already written for them, in the van buren design documents.

they copied a lot of canon from those texts because its REALLY EASY to take someone elses ideas and make them into something instead of having your own ideas.

don't get me wrong though. i highly doubt the typewriter monkies at bethesda and obsidian couldve come up with anything better than what was already written 10 years ago by people with less creative tools at their disposal.

Actually, The people at Obsidian WORKED on Van Buren.

so.

How is this different than what the Romans did?

Besides, if you are a Megalomaniac who wants to take over the world, don't reinvent the wheel, use techniques that already work.

some of them.. namely.. 3?

black isles closed its doors a long time ago, and the people who were in charge of van buren dispersed. i have no doubt that everyone on the obsidian team who originated from black isles knows and understands the van buren documents... i have every doubt about whether or not they were allowed to incorporate their own ideas into it. sawyer probably had the most say, though.

The Romans had more infrastructure and operated from centralized locations. The Legion, like the Mongols, are more of a marauding horde. The Mongol Empire didn't have a real capital until after Genghis Khan died and Ogedei built Kharkorum.

The Legion, like the Mongols, used fear to a much greater extent against their enemies. The Mongols spared artisans of conquered enemies so that they could write about the Mongols' brutality to instill fear in others.

The Mongols were rather fond of the kinds of tests that the Legion gave to Nipton. The Mongols liked to test the loyalty of conquered cities by randomly killing people and seeing if anyone resisted.

The Legion's use and treatment of slaves is probably closer to the Mongols' system of slavery than the Romans'.

We of the western civilization have long be indoctrinated to believe the Romans were an eternal bastion of civility and were the epitome of all human empires. But just like everywhere else, Italy was a land of tribes and the Romans just happened to beat all those other tribes. Before it was a Republic or and Empire, Rome was a brutal kingdom striving to crush all other civilizations and tribes around it. I think it was an apt comparison, now is Caesar himself a man like Gaius Julius Caesar? No. Despite some parallels he is not much like the man from what we know. He is in a sense, a more savage version of Romulus.

Great Khans?

The Great Khans are more like the Vikings than the Mongols.

Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. The people who were in charge of Van Buren, and who came up with Caesar's Legion, are Chris Avellone and J.E. Sawyer. Both of which are at Obsidian and worked on New Vegas.